Lions Reportedly Favored To Re-Sign DT Ndamukong Suh

Lions president Tom Lewand mentioned during an interview on Sunday that he believes there is a “very, very good chance” they will be able to get a long-term contract in place with impending free agent DT Ndamukong Suh.

“He wants to have success in the NFL, obviously, but he wants to do that with us,” Lewand said, via the Detroit Free Press. “And I think that — I think there’s a very, very good chance that we can get something done with him in the next few weeks.”

Lewand expressed confidence that they will be able to make things work from a contractual stand point, even though Suh is well positioned to be the highest paid defensive player in the league.

“We’ve had a good chunk of our salary cap tied up in three players over the last few years,” Lewand said. “Matthew (Stafford), Calvin (Johnson) and Ndmukong have all had very lucrative contracts under the old rookie system, and even as Matthew and Calvin have done their extensions. So we’ve done that, we’ve lived in that environment. There’s no reason we can’t continue to live in that environment.”

However, retaining Suh at a market-value price would force the team to consider some tough roster decisions, according to Lewand.

“We plan really well looking out into the future and where our salary cap goes,” Lewand said. “I think we can do that. I have no doubt that we can do that with Ndamukong, make him a continuing part of the core of our football team, and that’s what that’s all about in this league is identifying those core players and building around those guys. And there’s no doubts that there’s trade outs that have to happen along the way. You can’t keep everybody because it is a hard cap, but if you have a good nucleus of guys, then that draft every year comes through and you can keep adding good players to the mix.”